It doesn't say it but this was
probably near Moncks Corner, SC. I used to dive for fossils there, too. We see gators laying around in the old rice fields but I was told gators usually don't go more 15 or 20 feet deep....guess that's BS! I remember talking to someone else on TB2K who did some diving there, too but I can't remember his name now.
Many years ago, a bunch of went to see "Jaws". The next day we went black water diving near Moncks Corner on the Cooper River near Charleston, SC. My dive buddy & I were tethered together in about 40 feet of black water, looking for fossils on the sandy/clay bottom. On a good day with strong batteries in your dive light, you could see maybe 8 feet. We both must have seen the same "flash" at the far limit of our lights because both our lights zeroed in on the same spot - just in time for a 6+ foot long sturgeon to swim between us! We didn't hit the surface but we did pop up to about 20 feet or so. The tether between us never got tight so I wasn't the only one about to have a heart attack!
We regrouped, went back down and finished the dive but we had a war story when we got back in the boat!
Diver Will Georgitis survived a vicious alligator attack after being pinned underwater in the Cooper River in South Carolina on April 19
people.com
Diver Miraculously Survives Vicious Alligator Attack: ‘Somehow Ripped My Arm Out and Not Off’
Will Georgitis was attacked in South Carolina on April 15 while going for a dive in the Cooper River to look for fossils.
By
Gabrielle Rockson
Published on April 23, 2024 06:55AM EDT
A South Carolina diver is recovering after he miraculously survived a vicious alligator attack that left him pinned underwater.
According to the
Associated Press, Will Georgitis was attacked in South Carolina on April 15 after going for a scuba dive to look for fossils.
He told
The Post and Courier that after surfacing from his dive due to limited air, he spotted the alligator nearby in the Cooper River.
"It made a beeline right at me," he told the outlet, explaining that he instinctively threw up his arm when the alligator lunged for his head.
With the alligator's jaw clenched onto his arm, Georgitis decided to wrap his free hand and legs around the reptile’s body but the 6 feet 2 inches diver was unable to lock his ankles together and get a firm grip.
Georgitis then tried to use his screwdriver to stab the animal's eye, however, the alligator immediately shook him and pinned him to the bottom of the 50-feet-deep river.
"I knew I was going to die right then and there," Georgitis told
The Post and Courier, adding that he continued to stab the gator’s gum with the screwdriver until his scuba tank ran dry.
In desperation, he decided he would try to free himself by placing his feet on the alligator's body and pushing hard until his arm ripped off in its jaws.
“I put my feet up against him just launched back as hard as I possibly could and somehow ripped my arm out and not off,” Georgitis told
Good Morning America.
The gator’s teeth then scraped over Georgitis’ arm, enabling the diver to break free and swim to the surface, where a friend was waiting with a boat.
Georgitis was left with a broken bone in his lower right arm, a dislocated bone and an inserted metal plate with nine screws. He may also need more surgery and faces around six months of recovery.
He is now warning other divers to take care when exploring the Cooper River and other waterways in South Carolina, which has an estimated 100,000 alligators.
Georgitis also told
The Post and Courier that his survival had nothing to do with being brave.
"The only thing going through my head was pure fear," he told the outler.